“I’m not mooning.”
Wishing, maybe. Wishing I’d been braver and gone out to Emerson. Let him take me away. But being brave in this case also means being an asshole. Disappearing in the middle of Leo’s wedding day would ruin it, no question.
“Daphne.”
“Eva.”
“Don’t lie,” she sings. “I can see you staring out the window.”
I stare at her with huge eyes until she laughs. “You already planned this entire reception. Let the coordinator do her job.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” She drops her phone into her purse and leans her head back on the seat. “Dad is in rare form today.”
“I’ve never seen anyone more pissed off at a wedding. He was, like, glowering the entire ceremony.”
“He looked sick with jealousy,” Eva muses.
“Like Dad would ever want to marry a Constantine.”
Eva huffs. “Probably not.”
Who the hell knows, though? I never in my life thought Leo would marry a Constantine. Much less one like Haley, who’s so sweet and soft.
The way Leo looked at her in that church…
It wasn’t just fairy-tale love. There was obsession, too. I think of his arms tensing around her that night in his office. She’s not leaving. Ever. He would risk anything for Haley. Sneaking into a church would be the least he’d do for her.
Like it’s the least Emerson would do for me.
My pulse races when I think about it like that. Leaving an orchid, even two orchids, even an expensive painting—those are games to Emerson. Like passing a note. It’s different when he touches me.
When he has his mouth on me.
I shift on the seat, trying to get comfortable, trying to put these thoughts out of my mind. It’s beyond me. I can’t stop. It was the childish, safe Daphne who wanted a normal man. The artist in me has always been drawn to power. How could I not be? I’ve been walking on the shore of power all my life. I’ve never been allowed to swim.
Maybe that’s what all these canvases filled with the ocean are about. Watching the water from the shore, never able to enter. Always apart.
“What about you?” I ask Eva.
“What about me?”
“Would you marry a Constantine?”
“No,” she says, too quickly. “I would stay far away from Constantines.”
“Why? Because of what happened?”
The driver makes a turn off the highway, and Eva looks at me, her expression careful. “What do you mean, because of what happened?”
“To Leo.” I thought that was obvious. Nothing’s ever been as personal as what happened to Leo.
“Oh.” Eva glances out the window. “That, of course. And because there’s too much history between our families. Honestly, I don’t trust them.”
“Is that what you told Leo and Lucian?”
“I told Leo that, yes. But it was too late by then. He was already in love with her. Besides—Haley and Elaine. They’re women.”
“What, so they’re nicer?”
“It’s less about being nice and more about having power. Women don’t run families like ours. The men do. I wouldn’t trust one as far as I could throw him. No matter how charming he looks. Or how nice he seems. It’s all a front.”
I raise my eyebrow. “Do you have a particular one in mind?”
“Of course not.” Eva shakes her head as if changing the subject. “I chose that champagne you like for the reception.”
“That’s why you’re my favorite sister.”
We talk about food and dancing and wedding guests until we join a row of cars in front of Leo’s house. Gerard comes out to take our purses and usher us into the foyer.
The entire space has been redone for the wedding. No more dark wallpaper. Just by existing, Haley has made this place brighter—and there was already a ton of natural light before. We follow the decorations to the ballroom. I saw it this morning, but now, as the day wanes, it’s even more beautiful.
Eva’s taken the colors from the stained glass window—the rose and the white and the shadow—and pulled it into the room. Tiny glowing lights are everywhere.
It’s a huge ballroom, but she’s made it seem intimate.
“Wow,” I breathe. “You’re really good at this.”
Eva kisses my cheek. “Go have some champagne. I’m going to make sure everything’s okay.”
It seems perfect so far. Leo and Haley are at one end of the room, talking to person after person. After a minute she covers her mouth with her hand and makes wide eyes at him. I know this look. Her lips are getting tired from smiling. He takes her hand in his and kisses her ring, then her cheek, and I think he’d kiss her more if she didn’t laugh and put a hand on his jacket to stop him.
There’s Eva, slipping easily through the crowd, smiling, watching. The tall man from the ceremony and the engagement party—the Constantine-looking one, with the odd black eyes—is here with his beautiful wife, and with his dog. The dog sits so still at his side that most people don’t notice it’s here. Eva bends to pat its head, then continues on. I can see what she’s saying as she goes. Is there anything I can get for you? It’s so good to see you. I’m so happy you could make it. Yes, he’s very happy. She’s a beautiful bride. She circles all the way around to Leo and Haley. Leo turns his head to talk to Eva, and then both of them are looking in the same direction. He shakes his head. Gerard will handle it. Eva agrees.
“Nice ceremony,” says my brother Carter. “Dragged a bit in the middle.”
I turn around to give him a quick hug. “What, you don’t like a full Mass for a wedding?”
His eyes glint with laughter. He stood up in the wedding, too. Carter’s handsome like the rest of my brothers, but maybe less…vicious looking, if that makes any sense. Quieter. More serious. Though I’ve always suspected that he’s just as hard beneath that surface. Harder, maybe.
He looks around to make sure no one can hear, then bends down so he can speak into my ear. “If anything could convince me to bind myself in that eternal hellscape, I’d elope.”
This makes me laugh. A Morelli, just—eloping? Disappearing into the middle of nowhere and getting married without all of Bishop’s Landing knowing about it? “You would not.”
“How would anyone know? I’m away most of the time.”
“You have a point.” He does spend most of his time overseas doing some kind of work that’s really prestigious. I don’t know what it is, exactly. “Away doing what?”
He gives me a blank expression, which looks strange on his face, because he’s always so damn knowledgeable all the time. “You know what I do.”
“Research. On plants.”
“Rhizomes, specifically. That’s my area of expertise.”
“Which are?”
“A subterranean plant stem that develops axillary buds and grows horizontally.”
I laugh. “Are you telling me you study potatoes?”
A laughing glint enters his eyes. “Those are tubers. Rhizomes are turmeric, ginger. Bamboo.”
“They keep you at Oxford to study bamboo?”